By the Natran team, Natran Green Pest Control (Austin). Reviewed on-site by a Natran team member; no individual expert was quoted for this guide, which combines Natran field practice with published university and extension research.

in a single year, a mature native subterranean colony of about 60,000 workers eats roughly one foot of pine 2x4 every five months, which works out to a little over two feet of framing across the year [1]. Serious structural damage usually takes three to eight years of steady feeding [1]. Large colonies, and Formosan colonies especially, get through more than that [2][3].

That two-feet-a-year figure tends to surprise people who came in expecting a horror story. Termites are slow and quiet, and the wood a single native colony removes in twelve months is usually something a carpenter can repair. The problem is rarely the year you find them but the years you did not, because a colony old enough to send swarmers onto your windowsill has already been in the ground for a while.

This guide gives Austin homeowners the real figures: how much a colony eats, what a year of feeding looks like in a Central Texas home, why the damage stays hidden, and when local termites give themselves away.

Which termite is in the soil under your slab

Austin sits squarely in native subterranean termite country, and the species most Central Texas homeowners deal with is Reticulitermes, the native subterranean termite that both Texas A&M AgriLife and the Travis County Master Gardeners identify as the common local wood-destroyer [4][5]. These are ground-nesting insects that need contact with soil or a steady moisture source to survive, which is why they reach a house through foundation cracks, expansion joints, and the mud tubes they build rather than by flying in.

Two subterranean types are worth telling apart in Texas [6], and the native colony matures slowly, taking two to four years before it produces winged swarmers [4][6]. Its size is easy to underestimate: young colonies hold only a few thousand insects, but a mature Reticulitermes colony commonly runs from 100,000 to a million foragers [7], with an average somewhere around 300,000 [1]. A new queen lays only a few hundred eggs in her first year [4] and works up to several thousand a year as the colony matures [1].

The other type is the Formosan subterranean termite, and it is the one that earns the alarming headlines. A Formosan colony can grow past a million individuals within about five years, at least four times the size of a typical native colony, and it feeds on a wider range of wood at a faster rate [3][2]. Formosan termites were first found in Texas in 1956 near the Houston Ship Channel and have since spread through the state's major metro areas, including the Austin region [3][5]. For most Austin homes the everyday threat is still the native species, but knowing which one you have changes how quickly you need to act.

How much a colony actually eats

The figure worth keeping in your head comes from NC State Extension: a colony of roughly 60,000 workers can eat about one foot of 2x4 lumber in five months [1]. Run that across a full year and a single mid-sized colony removes a little over two feet of pine framing.

That feeding is spread out rather than concentrated in one spot, because a native colony forages across as much as a third of an acre and travels up to 200 feet from the nest in search of wood [1]; UF/IFAS puts the foraging reach at around 150 feet [7]. So the wood a colony eats in a year comes from wherever the foragers hit cellulose first, whether a fence post, a stump, a stack of firewood, or the sill plate of your house.

Formosan colonies change this math because there are so many more mouths. A colony several times larger, feeding on both early- and late-season wood, gets through more material in the same window [3]. That is the real meaning of "Formosan termites are faster": each insect does not eat more, but the colony is bigger and less picky.

What a year of feeding looks like in a Central Texas home

Two homes can host termites for a year and look completely different at the end of it.

If a young colony has only recently found your foundation, twelve months of feeding leaves damage that is minor and often cosmetic: a little hollowed baseboard, some galleries in a door frame, maybe a run of trim that sounds hollow when you tap it. If an established, mature colony has been foraging into a sill plate or a load-bearing stud for that year, the loss is larger and more likely to need real carpentry, though it is usually still a repair rather than a rebuild.

The University of Kentucky's homeowner termite guide makes the point most panicked homeowners miss: termites damage wood slowly, and the extra damage from taking a day, a week, or a month to make an informed decision is generally inconsequential [8]. That is the honest, extension-backed version of the timeline, and a sound Austin house does not collapse from one year of subterranean feeding.

The reason "one year" is the wrong question is that serious structural damage typically takes three to eight years of continuous feeding to develop [1], and you almost never start counting on day one.

Why the damage stays hidden

Subterranean termites are cryptic by habit, feeding inside wood and behind finishes, and infestations can go undetected for years, tucked behind walls, under floor coverings, and inside insulation [8]. They avoid open air, so the surface of an infested board can look perfect while the inside is a honeycomb of galleries.

The meaningful timeline is not the wood lost in a single year but the head start the colony had before anyone noticed. By the time a Reticulitermes colony is mature enough to send out swarmers, it has been building for two to four years [4]. A homeowner who finds those swarmers and asks how much they can do in a year is often already several years into an infestation. The wood you can measure is the smaller problem, and the colony you cannot see is the larger one.

When Austin termites swarm, and why that is your calendar alert

The clearest warning most homeowners ever get is a swarm, and the timing is local.

Native subterranean termites in Texas swarm from January through April, during daylight hours, usually a day or two after rain [6][4]. In Central and South Texas that emergence tends to land in the earlier part of that window. Formosan termites keep a different schedule: they swarm at night in late May and June, and they are strongly drawn to lights [2][3].

If you find a scatter of discarded wings on a windowsill, a countertop, or a garage floor after a warm spring rain, that is evidence a mature colony has reached reproductive age somewhere close to your foundation [4]. The weeks right after a swarm are when an inspection pays for itself, because the swarm confirms the colony is established rather than hypothetical.

What a year of hidden feeding can cost

Nationally, termites cause more than 5 billion dollars in property damage each year, a figure the National Pest Management Association reports and that Texas A&M AgriLife's urban entomologists cite for Texas homeowners [9]. Spread across millions of homes, that is the compounding cost of infestations that ran undetected.

The sting for homeowners is that termite damage is typically not covered by standard homeowners insurance, because insurers treat it as a preventable maintenance problem rather than a sudden accident [9]. Repairs come out of your pocket, and unresolved termite activity has to be disclosed in most real estate transactions, so it tends to surface at the worst possible moment during a sale. A year of feeding you never treated leaves more than lost wood behind it. The colony is still there, larger than it was and foraging wider, and moving you closer to that three-to-eight-year structural threshold.

If you think termites already have a head start

Because the damage is slow, you have room to be thorough rather than frantic. A Natran team member on-site will usually work through the same short list before anything else (no individual expert was quoted for this guide; this reflects general field practice alongside the research cited above):

• Look for mud tubes, the pencil-width soil tunnels termites build up foundation walls, piers, and expansion joints to stay connected to the ground.
• Check for discarded wings near windows and doors after a spring rain, and tap suspect trim and baseboards for a hollow sound.
• Cut off what invites them: fix leaks and drainage so soil near the foundation stays dry, and keep firewood, mulch, cardboard, and scrap lumber off direct soil contact against the house.
• Schedule a professional inspection. In Central Texas, an annual termite inspection is a reasonable baseline given how common the native subterranean termite is here.

You do not need to make a rushed treatment decision the afternoon you find a mud tube. You do need to stop the clock, because the colony will not stop on its own.

Frequently asked questions

Can termites destroy a house in one year?

Not a structurally sound house. Serious structural damage from native subterranean termites typically takes three to eight years of continuous feeding [1], and university extension guidance is clear that the wood lost over a single year is usually repairable [8]. The exception is a large or Formosan colony working undetected in a home that already has moisture problems, which can do noticeably more in the same time [3].

How fast do termites eat wood in Texas?

A native subterranean colony of about 60,000 workers eats roughly one foot of 2x4 lumber every five months, or a little over two feet across a year, based on NC State Extension's biology summary [1]. The feeding is spread across a foraging area as large as a third of an acre, so it is diffuse rather than concentrated [1].

Are Formosan termites in Austin?

Formosan subterranean termites have spread through Texas's major metropolitan areas, including the Austin region, since they were first found in the state in 1956 [3][5]. They are far more destructive than native termites, but for most Austin homes the common wood-destroying species is still the native Reticulitermes subterranean termite [5].

When do termites swarm in Austin?

Native subterranean termites in Texas swarm in daylight from January through April, usually after rain [6][4]. Formosan termites swarm at night in late May and June and are attracted to lights [2]. A spring swarm indoors is one of the strongest signs of a mature colony near your home.

Does homeowners insurance cover termite damage?

Generally no. Standard homeowners policies treat termite damage as a preventable maintenance issue rather than a covered peril, so repairs are usually the homeowner's responsibility [9].

The number that actually matters

The honest answer to how much damage in a year is "less than you fear, but for longer than you think." A single native colony eats a couple of feet of framing in a year, and a house takes years of feeding to reach real structural trouble [1][8]. How long the colony has already been feeding before you found it should drive your decisions more than any annual dollar amount. That is why a spring swarm and an annual inspection are the real timeline to watch in Austin.

Reference Sources

1. NC State Extension, "Biology and Behavior of Eastern Subterranean Termites." https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/biology-behavior-of-eastern-subterranean-termites
2. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Urban Entomology, "Formosan Subterranean Termites." https://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/urban-pests/termites/formosan/
3. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, "Formosan Subterranean Termites" (E-367). https://extensionentomology.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/formosan-subterranean-termites-compressed.pdf
4. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Urban Entomology, "Native Subterranean Termites." https://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/urban-pests/termites/native/
5. Travis County Master Gardeners Association (Texas A&M AgriLife), "Termites in the Landscape." https://www.tcmastergardeners.org/termites-in-the-landscape/
6. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, "Subterranean Termites" (B-6080). https://williamson.agrilife.org/files/2014/08/Subterranean-Termites-B6080.pdf
7. University of Florida IFAS Extension, "Native Subterranean Termites: Reticulitermes" (EENY-212). https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN369
8. University of Kentucky Entomology, "Termite Control: Answers for Homeowners" (Entfact-604). https://entomology.mgcafe.uky.edu/ef604
9. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Insects in the City (Michael Merchant), "Ten top pests that can hurt your home." https://citybugs.tamu.edu/2016/01/22/ten-top-pests-that-can-hurt-your-home/